Post Amsterdam
by Malinski
Summary: Augustus does not have a recurrence. Read to find out more...


Please read! Augustus does not have a recurrence. Hazel and Augustus got back from Amsterdam two weeks ago.

It is Saturday morning

I was lying in bed trying to sleep with the bipap but it seemed impossible to clear my mind. After about an hour of telling myself to go to sleep I went back to my favourite hobby at the time, reminiscing about the late afternoon of the venn diagram. I remembered the feeling of his lips on mine and him saying "I love you." We'd said those three words to each other plenty of times during the past two weeks and yet I still got a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach every time he said it to me. To be truthful, I still got a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I saw him or spoke to him, which was pretty often.

Before Augustus my life had consisted of hospital visits, classes at MCC and support group. Yes, I had friends before I met Augustus but none of them were able to treat me as if I wasn't dying. There was no chance of having a connection with any of my old friends. Augustus was different though. He knew that there was no getting 'through' my cancer and yet he still wanted to be with me. I didn't understand but I liked it anyway. He made me happy and I figured I could take a leaf out of Augustus' book and not deny myself the simple pleasure of being in love, seeing as I probably didn't have much time.

After our return from Amsterdam there had been a noticeable change in my parents. My mum didn't hover around me as much and my dad didn't look ready to cry every time he saw me. I guess they were glad that even though I was dying I was living. That may be cheesy but love often is, especially true love. The fact that the scheduled draining of my lungs two days after our return had shown my lungs to have far less fluid in them than expected had clearly contributed to this improvement in their mood but there seemed to be something else.

The next morning I woke up and switched from the bipap to my portable tank and set it for the usual amount. I brought my oxygen with me to the oxygen. It was only 9am so my parents were sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast and reading the paper, their traditional Saturday morning activity. "Morning Hazel! You're up early," dad greeted me with a smile. I sat down at the too big circular table with my parents and nibbled on some bread.

"So do you have any plans today?" mum asked with a wink.

"Yeh I'm going to a high school party with Kaitlin. We're going to get drunk and take pot. You'll find me in a bush by North Central High School with a random guy at around 2am but it's okay I don't have class until tuesday so I can take plenty of shots," my mum gave me an incredulous look whilst dad just grinned and shook his head.

"You had better be joking young lady," mum said sternly.

"And what would you be doing at North Central? The parties at that other place are supposed to be way cooler," dad asked.

"And you too! Encouraging her," mum turned her glare to dad who flinched somewhat before smiling at her encouragingly.

"Seriously Hazel. Your grandmother is coming... You forgot didn't you?" mum said.

"No. I was just joking..." I tried to dig myself out of the hole.

"Made plans with Gus?" Dad asked with a smile.

"Maybe," I replied with a blush.

Ten minutes later I managed to escape from the embarrassing conversation to my room. My parents definitely liked Augsutus and they knew that we really like each other and were happy with each other but they still felt the need to interrogate me every time someone mentioned Gus. His parents were worse though. I'm not saying that they weren't nice people but they talked a bit much to be honest. I would arrive at his place and we would stand around talking for about half an hour. They weren't all too keen on us being alone in the basement either. My parents were generally not at home at least so Gus and I could sit in the garden alone and just talk for hours. We didn't talk about anything in particular. Gus would tell me about something that had happened in school and I would pick up on a small detail and we would go off on a tangent. Those conversations were generally the highlight of my day.

I got dressed in some jeans and a t-shirt. It was the middle of May but there was no way it was warm enough to wear shorts or a skirt or anything summery. My dad was right. I had indeed made plans with Augustus and I was going to be late if I didn't get a move on.

A/N thankyou for reading the first chapter of this little story. Every review is welcome so please tell me what you think J


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